


I Can Tell That We Are Gonna Be Friends

by little_alien_duck



Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: Gen, Young Janeway, Young Paris, purely platonic friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-06
Updated: 2020-02-06
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:47:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,235
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22585846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/little_alien_duck/pseuds/little_alien_duck
Summary: Brand new science officer on the Al-Batani, Kathryn Janeway, meets a lonely kid at a diplomatic event in San Fransisco. Turns out her new friend is her Captain's son.
Relationships: Kathryn Janeway & Tom Paris
Kudos: 29





	I Can Tell That We Are Gonna Be Friends

The kid looked as lonely as Kathryn felt. He was one of the only people in the ball room not in uniform. If Kathryn had to guess, she’d say he was probably about fifteen, not old enough to be wearing one anyway. Instead, he wore a nicely cut suit he seemed to detest. He would not stop tugging at the collar or fiddling with his tie. 

Kathryn felt sorry for him, if not a little jealous. She was sorry for how miserable he looked, but jealous because he’d had the foresight to bring something to read. Clutched in his hands was an actual paper book. From across the room, Kathryn couldn’t make out the title, but she could make out a submarine and possibly a sea monster. 

_ Kid’s got taste _ , she thought.

He hadn’t seen her looking. No one was paying much attention to her. She was just a junior science officer Captain Paris had ordered to come along. The Al-Batani was in San Francisco because the captain was needed for something, blah blah blah. Kathryn was  _ not  _ party to that kind of information, as much as she wished she was. All she knew was that she had the misfortune to be on duty when Paris had been invited to some Starfleet event with “a selection of his officers.” To avoid having to think about who to pick, he’d picked whoever happened to be on the bridge.

And that included Kathryn, so here she was, standing in the back of a massive ball room in her dress uniform sipping whatever she’d snatched off a passing tray. Mostly, she was not talking to anyone. It was a bunch of captains and admirals with much better things to do than talk to a very green ensign. She’d lost track of her crewmates as soon as they showed up. There were far too many people here, all of them basically wearing the same thing. 

Kathryn found herself walking toward the kid. She was lonely and bored and felt very unqualified to be in this room with all of these people who would probably declare their conversation “confidential” if she tried to join. He looked like he felt the same way. 

Plus, he was loitering next to the food. She could always use that as an excuse if things went south. 

“Good book?”

His head snapped up when he realized someone was actually talking to him. She was picking out a selection of fruit and pretending she felt more at ease than she actually did. 

“I’ve actually read it before.” He ran a hand through his hair and across the back of his neck. In the process he managed to make both his hair and the back of his collar stand up. Kathryn thought about telling him but decided against it. It was cute, in a little kid kind of way. Kathryn’s heart ached at the thought of her young sister back in Indiana. The kid was probably her age. 

“I grabbed the first book I could find on my way out of the house. Dad’s always dragging me to stupid shit like this.” 

He sighed and glared at the floor, but there wasn’t much heat to it. Kathryn figured that had probably been used up years ago.

“I’m Tom, by the way.” Tucking his book under his arm, he stuck a hand out to her.

“Kathryn.” Juggling her plate and her mostly empty glance, she shook it. “So the book,” she prompted again. 

“You’re really interested in my book, huh?” Tom said with a grin. 

“More interesting than anything going on here.” 

“Don’t let a captain hear you say that, they’ll put you on report.”

“Well lucky for me, I’m a science officer so I can get away with being undiplomatic at events. I don’t have a future in command I’ve got to worry about.” 

Laughing, Tom held out of the book for her to see.  _ Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea  _ by Jules Verne. A classic story of exploration. Kathryn knew that even if she hadn’t read it. 

“Nice choice.” 

“I like old science fiction.” 

Books were enough to keep them talking for a while. Then it was making up backstories for all of the different pencil pushers and their staff. Whoever Tom’s dad was, he was clearly well connected. Tom knew nearly all of their names, not that this stopped him from making fun of them all. 

Kathryn didn’t even notice it was getting late. She was far too busy telling entirely adolescent jokes. Talking to Tom was like getting to talk to her younger sister without all of the baggage that comes from growing up with another person. It was fun. 

Kathryn was doubled over laughing after she’d succeeded in catching Tom so off guard that he actually had synthehol squirt out of his nose, when a voice from behind interrupted them. 

“I see the two of you have met.” 

“Captain!” Kathryn whirled around, attempting to smooth out her uniform and stop laughing and tuck her hair behind her ears all at the same time.

“At ease, Ensign.” The Captain’s gaze quickly drifted over to Tom and for the first time all night, an obvious fact actually seemed obvious to Kathryn.

Tom was Tom Paris. She’d heard the Captain mention his son Tom before. 

From the extremely limited amount of information she had, she guessed their relationship was strained to say the least. From the way Tom’s grin had disappeared as soon as Captain Paris appeared, it seemed her guess was correct.

“Hello Father,” Tom said, more formally than he’d said anything all night. There was still synthehol on his chin, but he stood with his back uncomfortably straight and his hands clasped behind his back. The temperature in the room seemed to have dropped several degrees. The conversation wasn’t fun anymore. 

“I hope you’re not corrupting my science officer,” Captain Paris said with less humor in his voice than Kathryn was expecting. 

Kathryn thought about saying that she might be the one corrupting him, but that probably wasn’t a good thing to say to her commanding officer. She didn’t know what to say instead.

“No sir,” Tom said, and Kathryn could see him struggling not to roll his eyes.

“It’s getting late. We should probably be going.” The Captain placed a hand on his son’s shoulder, but the movement was stiff and formal. “I’ll see you on the bridge tomorrow, Ensign.” 

“Yes sir,” Kathryn said. Disappointment bloomed in her chest as Tom and his father turned to go. It was nice to talk to someone as a friend who wasn’t a coworker. Being posted on a ship was like being a member of a family, and like all families, each ship had its own history of rivalries and disappointments and personalities that grated on each other. It was nice to talk to someone who wasn’t a part of that. And it was nice to talk to Tom specifically because they had the same crooked sense of humor. 

“Tom?” She hoped she wasn’t about to embarrass herself in front of her captain. “I’ll talk to you soon.” 

Tom smiled for the first time since his father approached.

“Definitely,” he said, and when he turned to go, he walked with his head held just a bit higher than it had been the moment before. 

Kathryn Janeway would see Tom Paris again. She was sure of it. 

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I think I might write some more on this concept, later episodes in their friendship, but don't hold me to that.


End file.
